The traditional Newfoundland practice of dressing in disguise on Boxing Day is called mummering.
Mummering is a Christmas-time house-visiting custom associated with Newfoundland and Labrador, with roots in older English and Irish traditions. Groups of friends or relatives put on masks, scarves, hoods, pillowcases, or improvised old clothes and visit neighbours’ homes. Hosts then try to identify the disguised visitors before offering them food or drink.
The custom is not limited to silent disguises. Mummers may dance, sing, play instruments, tell jokes, recite verses, or deliberately alter their voices. Cross-dressing, stuffed clothing, and speaking while inhaling were all ways to make recognition harder. Once identified, a visitor usually removes the disguise and socialises before the group moves to another house.
The Newfoundland tradition is documented as early as 1819. It was sometimes linked with the Old Twelfth, 17 January in the modern calendar, rather than strictly 26 December. Mummering declined in larger communities after an 1861 law restricted public disguises, but rural practice continued. A revival began in the 1980s, helped by Simani’s 1982 song “Any Mummers Allowed In?”
“Mumming” is a related name, but mummering is the canonical Newfoundland term.